41 Bella's Training

I woke up after a few short hours of sleep. My whole body felt stiff from sleeping on a simple mat laid on the floor. I stretched as I got up, loosening my body a bit so I could continue my training.

Three days ago, I left the Sleeper Inn before Luke could wake up. I wonder how his MP training is going.

Shaking my head to clear the distracting thoughts, I walked down a long hallway that lead to a training ground behind the adventurers guild. Luke didn't know, but I was getting trained by the Guildmaster himself.

Once I reached the training ground, I saw that Guildmaster Brandon was already waiting for me. The sky was not bright yet, but I could clearly see the Guildmaster's face. It seemed he had already finished his preparations, based on his serious expression.

"Hurry up, Bella. You only have four more days to train yourself before you go back to Luke's side. As I've said before, I won't go easy on you."

"Yes sir!" I answered as I quickened my pace. Once I reached a certain point, I stopped moving and waited for the Guildmaster to tell me what to do.

For the last three days, I've mainly been training myself in two ways. One of the ways was to work on my strength and stamina. The other way was raising my skill levels.

I wanted to raise the level of my Unique Skill, Suhara's Blessing, but I was also wanted to work on raising the presence detection skill.

When I explained my request to the Guildmaster, he agreed to help me, but only if I would take on a certain quest with Luke when we were done training. He didn't say what the quest was, but I was confident in doing anything the Guildmaster would tell us to do.

The schedule set up by the Guildmaster was pretty simple. The first day was all skill training. Once an hour, I would have the Guildmaster hit me to activate Suhara's Blessing, and the rest of the time I was to focus on sensing what all the guild workers were doing through Presence Detection. It was mentally draining, but it would help raise the skill levels quickly through constant use.

The second day started with a five kilometer run, followed by sparring with the Guildmaster until lunch. After an hour break, I meditated for another hour, and then jogged for two hours.

That was the schedule, and it would loop for the entire week. It sounds rough, but it was definitely working. After only three days, Suhara's Blessing was already level five and presence detection was level six. My STR, VIT, AGI, and DEX stats had all risen a bit. Even my Staff Wielding skill had risen by one and was now level seven.

Today was the second day of physical training. Guildmaster Brandon raised his hand as I prepared myself for the signal to start running. "Start!" Guildmaster Brandon said has he chopped the air in front of him.

I started off with a light jog, and slowly sped up as I left the training grounds of the guild. Jogging down the main street, I went in the direction of the south gate just as the sun started rising in the east. Once I reached the south gate, I turned to my right and followed the wall until the west gate. From there, I turned back to the guild and sped up even more. it was a simple route, and it worked perfectly, since it was exactly five kilometers all in all.

"Twenty two minutes and thirty six seconds. That's almost a full minute faster than two days ago." Guildmaster Brandon said as he checked a small clock-like tool in his hand. "That's good progress."

I smile at the praise even though I was having trouble bringing my breathing under control. The Guildmaster passed me a cup of water which I drank greedily. After a few minutes, I finally managed to return to a normal state of breathing.

"Perfect." Guildmaster Brandon said once I was ready. "Now let's start our sparring." He went to a weapons rack full of wooden weapons and picked up a large wooden sword and a staff. After swinging the sword a few times, he returned and passed the staff over to me.

I took up a stance where the staff was held in one hand closer to the top and had it cross my body at an angle, from my shoulder to the opposite hip. The other hand was flat against the staff, close to my hip.

The Guildmaster waited for me to enter my defensive stance before swinging the sword at me from above. I quickly raised the staff at an angle so the sword would slide along the staff and fall to my side. Twirling the staff in my hand, I quickly jumped up and struck down at the Guildmaster's head. He easily evaded the attack and struck at my unguarded back. I rolled forward to dodge the strike and turned to face him in a defensive stance yet again.

The Guildmaster smiled mischievously and said, "Looks like you are keeping up with my attacks pretty well. Let's raise the difficulty a bit."

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I sat down gently, flinching a bit from the pain all over my body. Breathing slowly, I released all the tension from my muscles as I tried to enter a meditative state. I was exhausted from the sparring, but after eating a hearty meal I was feeling a bit better. Now I was letting my body digest the food and replenish a bit of energy.

Letting go of all distracting. thoughts, I managed to enter a meditative state quite quickly. All that I knew was the sound of my breath. Everything else was blocked out.

An hour later, I stood up. A few of my bones made cracking noises from being too stiff, but I felt better than when I sat down. I headed back to the training grounds and found the Guildmaster talking to one of the guild workers. I waited by the side for a bit before the guild worker returned to her work. Guildmaster Brandon found me waiting and said, "Sorry about that. There was some paperwork I had been pushing off that needed to be done today." The Guildmaster scratched his chin a bit. "Anyway, are you ready to run?"

"Of course. I don't really have a choice if I want to train properly, now do I." I said a bit sarcastically, making the Guildmaster chuckle.

"No. No you don't." He said. "Well, let's start." He started jogging and I followed after him. I would follow after the Guildmaster, no matter what, for the next two hours, and then I would be done for the day.

We ended up running all over the city and even out into the fields that surrounded the city a bit. I was tempted to give up many times, but if I did, I would never get stronger. Perseverance was the key to anything worthwhile.

Two hours later, I was laying down on the dirt of the training grounds, barely able to move. "Well, you did it. Go relax for the rest of the day. You did well today, Bella." The Guildmaster said before returning to his office, having barely broken a sweat.

I closed my eyes as I admired the Guildmaster in my mind. He really was an S rank adventurer. I slowly got up and trudged back to the room I was given. Even though it was still early, I quickly fell asleep after falling on the mat. I hoped Luke was having a good time training. At the very least, I was sure it was easier than mine.